LANSING – Jeff Warder can’t forget the terrible sound of a two-pound metal flashlight smashing into the head of his partner over and over.

The man swinging the weapon had violated his probation. Warder and Jim West, both Eaton County Sheriff's Office deputies at the time, were trying to bring him in.

“The sound was the most sickening thud I’ve ever heard in my life,” Warder said. “I can still hear it to this day.”

It was Jan. 16, 1997. Before the fight was over, West shot and killed the man who was hitting him, Gregory Sailer, 25.

“I was able to get a shot off to kill him. It’s not what I wanted to do. It’s what happened,” West recalled.

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Eaton County Sergeant Jim West in 2016 photo. West said the county has abandoned him just 18 months shy of retirement.(Photo: Lansing State Journal/Courtesy Jim West)

Two decades later, West began experiencing debilitating headaches and seizures. He hasn’t returned to work since a major seizure left him dazed and hospitalized in February 2017. Since the seizure, he's had memory loss and anxiety.

The state Municipal Employees Retirement System approved West’s petition for a duty-related retirement in 2017.

Eaton County challenged it.

And so he's surviving on Social Security disability benefits and credit card debt.

Doctors at both the University of Michigan and Michigan State University have independently connected the seizures to a brain lesion from the 1997 injury.

Eaton County officials scoff at the notion that the injury is job related.

County calls it a 'relatively minor event'

An attorney for the county, in filings in a disputed worker’s compensation case, referred to the 1997 beating as a “relatively minor event.”

Eaton County Sheriff Tom Reich calls West a “good leader” and “well liked” but has nonetheless refused to put him on light duty for 18 months so he could reach 25 years of duty to get his pension. Reich said he can’t discuss the reasons without violating confidential medical records.

The sheriff also said his decision was not connected to budget woes the county experienced later in 2017 that included elimination of 20 public safety jobs for a time.

A key development in the case takes place Thursday. The Municipal Employees Retirement System Board will meet to decide West’s case among other agenda items.

Some say the county’s treatment is puzzling and out of line with help offered to other injured law enforcement officers.

“It’s a travesty,” said former Eaton County Sheriff Rick Jones. He spent 31 years in the sheriff’s department, serving as sheriff from 2001 to 2004 before going on to a career in the Michigan Legislature.

“It’s outrageous in my mind that the county and the sheriff are mistreating this man, terribly mistreating this man,” he said.

Jones, a Republican, has discussed the case with an unlikely ally, former Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, a Democrat, who met West working out at the YMCA.

Bernero said, in neighboring Lansing, the officer would have been kept on for 18 months until qualifying for retirement.

“Give him a desk job. Give him light duty,” he said. “That would be without question.”

'Community owes him something'

Joe Jager, who spent 33 years in the Eaton County Sheriff’s Department, retiring as chief deputy in 2000, also criticized the lack of help for West.

“He’s out there protecting the community, and, as far as I’m concerned, the community owes him something,” he said.

Reich said he’s done what he could for West. He said 18 months of light duty wasn’t feasible but declined to say why.

“I feel very bad that this happened to him,” he said. “He was a good leader. He looked good in a uniform. He presented himself to the public very well…..Jim did a good job.”

Reich also pointed out that no grievance was filed in the case by West’s union.

Thomas Krug, executive director of the Capitol City Labor Program, the union representing West, said Reich didn’t need a grievance filed to offer West a light-duty position. He said there have been conflicting medical reports about West's ability to perform light duties.

Krug said he feels bad about West's situation but that once it moved into a worker's compensation case it's out of the union's hands.

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Sergeant Jim West spent 23.5 years in the Eaton County Sheriff's Department. He's 18 months short of a full retirement. Sheriff Tom Reich said there's nothing he can do though critics say West should get light duty.(Photo: Judy Putnam/Lansing State Journal)

The chair of the Eaton County Board of Commissioners Terrance Augustine declined to comment, saying it is a legal and personnel matter. Two Eaton County commissioners, including the chair of the Public Safety Committee, said this week they are unfamiliar with the case.

Eaton County Controller John Fuentes declined to discuss specifics because of the pending worker’s compensation claim. He said his job is “to protect the county’s interest” in those cases.

Fuentes said if West wins his duty-related retirement case, the county will be responsible for paying his health care for life. The county is self-insured for health care, he said.

West said he’s now paying $575 a month for COBRA health coverage, which will soon run out.

If he wins his pension case, he'll receive about three-quarters of his salary, a bit less than he would have received at full retirement but it would affect his Social Security payments. If he loses, he will have to wait until he's older to collect.

West, 49, who is divorced and the father of two grown daughters, said he’s used up his savings and has growing credit card debt.

'The only place I wanted to work'

West grew up in Potterville and knew from an early age that he wanted to be a deputy. At age 15, he worked at the Eaton County Sheriff's Office through the Scouts’ Explorer program.

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At age 15, Jim West worked with the Eaton County Sheriff's Department as an Explorer, an affiliate of the Boy Scouts of America. Photo is circa 1984.(Photo: Lansing State Journal/courtesy of Jim West)

He was hired in March of 1994. He was 24.

“That was the only place I wanted to work. That was it. That was my dream job,” he said.

He was promoted to detective then sergeant in charge of road patrols. He received his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice and took classes in emergency management.

He led the department’s bicycle team to stay in shape and served as a union representative.

He especially loved visiting classrooms and talking to kids about law enforcement.

In 2011, he was recognized by the Eaton County Board of Commissioners for his action when he saw smoke on the courthouse roof. He and others were credited with averting major damage to the building.

In 2014, he was named Law Enforcement Officer of the Year in a Lansing Community Newspapers’ popular vote.

Now he feels abandoned by the department he dedicated his life to, he said.

The worst day of his life was the day his captain took his badge and gun from him, he said. He didn't want to quit working.

“It was a great career. I miss it every day,” he said.

'I really hope the county does the right thing'

Warder, his former partner, retired from the department in 2017 after 25 years, around the time West got sick.

Warder is now undersheriff in Livingston County. Warder said he's speaking for himself, and not Livingston County, when talking about West’s situation.

He, too, believes West deserves better.

“Jim West has given his life to the county’s sheriff office. He’s a person who cared about the office and all the people he worked with. I really hope the county does the right thing with this. He’s earned it,” Warder said.

Warder disagrees that the 1997 beating was a "relatively minor event."

"Whoever wrote that wasn’t there to witness and hear and see the damage and severity of Deputy West getting hit in the head with that flashlight," he said. "There's no doubt in my mind there's a connection between what happened that night and what's going on right now."